Governance and Governmentality for Projects: Enablers, Practices, and Consequences

Citation

Jugdev, K. (2019), "Governance and Governmentality for Projects: Enablers, Practices, and Consequences", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 228-234. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-03-2019-278

Introduction

Edited by Ralf Müller, the renowned and respected scholar and Professor of Project Management at BI Norwegian Business School, the research book Governance and Governmentality for Projects: Enablers, Practices, and Consequences is a compelling and powerful contribution to the field. Governmentality pertains to the leadership and human side of governance.

With over 200 academic publications (including 13 books) and numerous awards (e.g. recognition as researcher of the year by the Project Management Institute® and International Project Management Association®), Dr Müller has breadth and depth on the topic of governance. As part of Routledge’s Studies in Corporate Governance Series, the book is intended primarily for an academic audience. Since literature on governance and governmentality in project management emerged primarily within the last 15–20 years, the concepts and theories covered in this book may be new to many readers. The book will assist readers in coming up to speed on recent advances.

Although there are theses, International Organization for Standardization and project management standards as well as practitioner/consultant books on governance, to this writer’s knowledge, there is nothing that compares with respect to breadth and depth along the lines of Müller’s book. When an edited book is developed by an authority, readers look forward to chapters written by experts. They may look forward to being able to appreciate a concise set of readings on one topic vs searching for various academic articles and trying to develop an integrated understanding on their own. For those seeking benefits such as these, Müller’s book will not disappoint. Chapter contributors included the following academics/consultants:

• Erling S. Andersen: Professor Emeritus of Project Management, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway.

• Christopher Biesenthal: Senior Lecturer, School of the Built Environment, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

• Gro Holst Volden: Research Director of the Concept Research Program, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.

• Robert Joslin: Portfolios/Project/Program Academic Researcher, Lecturer and Management Consultant.

• Ole Jonny Klakegg: Professor in Project Management, NTNU University, Norway and R&D Director at WSP Norway.

• Øyvind Kvalnes: Associate Professor, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway.

• Dan Li: Director of the Project Management Centre at Tasly Pharmaceutical Group, China.

• Beverley Lloyd-Walker: Researcher, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

• Shankar Sankaran: Professor of Organizational Project Management, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

• Derek Walker: Professor Emeritus, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

The above contributors to the book are well-known researchers in governance (i.e. Andersen, Biesenthal Klakegg, Sankaran, Volden and the Walkers). Other contributors, such as Kvalnes, brought expertise in ethics to the book and Li, for example, has exceptional experience in implementing governance structures. Joslin was one of Müller’s doctoral students. He founded the Association for International Project Management Officers. Located in Switzerland, it is the first professional organization for project management office managers and members.

Governance stems from the Greek word kubernaein (kubernáo) which means “to steer.” Over the years, a number of Müller’s research streams have been anchored within the subject of governance. His research seems to have “steered intuitively” in this direction. For example, his doctoral dissertation was on communication between sponsors and project managers. His research with Blomquist was on roles and responsibilities of middle managers, program and portfolio managers (Blomquist and Müller, 2005; Müller et al., 2008). This stream of research also informed the Project Management Institute® practice standard for portfolio management (Blomquist and Müller, 2006). His research with Aubry was anchored in project management offices (Aubry et al., 2011, 2012). Müller’s research with Turner explored selecting the right project manager from a leadership perspective (Turner et al., 2009; Turner and Müller, 2006). The above foci on sponsorship, program and portfolio management, project management offices and leadership roles and responsibilities are all about governance.

According to Müller, the distinction between governance and management involves thinking about governance in such terms as authorizing, defining, directing and monitoring. Governance is a framework for management involving such terms such as implementing, communicating, selecting and optimizing.

Müller’s (2009) first governance book entitled “Project governance” targeted Masters students and practitioners. That book introduced readers to governance concepts in relation to individual projects. His new book contributes to governance theories by developing a theory on the governance of projects and elucidating related models and paradigms. Written in a clear, concise and engaging style, the book takes an organizational perspective to governance. By defining projects as temporary organizations, the emphasis is on governance of the entirety of projects in an organization as a subset of corporate governance. The following quote articulates these relationships:

Organizational project governance coexists within the corporate governance framework and is the means by which individual projects, groups of projects (such as programs or portfolios), and the totality of all projects in an organization are directed and controlled and managers are held accountable for the conduct and performance of them. Governance provides the value system, structures, processes, and policies that foster transparency, accountability, responsibility, and fairness to allow projects to achieve organizational objectives and foster implementation that is in the best interest of all stakeholders, internal and external, and the corporation itself.

(Müller, 2017b, p. 14)

Governance principles pertain to the norms, values and rules along with governance structures used to steer an organization. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a consortium of 35 countries that develops social policies to stimulate trade and economic progress. As per the quote above, the four governing principles that the OECD uses are transparency, accountability, responsibility and fairness. These principles reflect effective leadership, trust and ethical behavior.

Organization

Consisting of 15 chapters, the book is divided into five parts. In addition to Müller sole or co-authoring 10 of the 15 chapters, he sole authored Parts 1 and 2 which provide the conceptual and theoretical foundation for the book. As such, the book is highly cohesive. The first two chapters set the stage by introducing key terms, definitions and a framework for the book. For example, projects were discussed as temporary organizations, the concepts of governance and governmentality were introduced and the four OECD principles of governance covered.

An integrative feature of the book was the use of the OECD governance principles. An extremely powerful figure is presented in Chapter 2 (Governance Principles across Governance Levels). The figure shows different governance levels and their linkage through the OECD governance principles. Throughout the book, Müller links each chapter to the four OECD governance principles and their importance and role in the governance structures. Each chapter ends with a reflection on these principles. The four OECD principles constitute the nexus that links the concepts and theoretical foundations in the book.

Part 1: concepts, theories and models

In Part 1 (Chapters 3–5), “Concepts, theories, and models”, the book succinctly introduced readers to the popular organizational corporate governance theories (stakeholder theory and shareholder theory) and behavioral governance theories (agency theory, stewardship theory and transaction cost economics). Then, four models of organizational project governance were introduced (process models, governance and governmentality-based models, nested models and layered models). Each model portrays a different worldview. Müller’s paradigm model was a layered governance model depicted as a 2 × 2 matrix. The horizontal axis spanned shareholder orientation (whereby companies maximize return on investment for shareholders) and stakeholder orientation (whereby the focus was on maximizing benefits for numerous stakeholder groups). The vertical axis addressed behavior control (e.g. focusing on compliance, such as project process) and outcome control (e.g. focusing on results, such as project outcomes). The matrix resulted in four governance paradigms, or thinking patterns. The model was further elaborated with findings from empirical studies on governance paradigms by country, project size and project type.

Thereafter, the commonly used governance institutions in both public and private sectors for the governance of projects were covered. These included board of directors, portfolio and program management, and project management offices. Then, institutions for project governance were discussed and included project owner and sponsor project steering groups. To offer an example of the OECD principle of transparency, “at the individual project level, PMO’s are often involved in auditing troubled projects and consulting with project managers in the ways to manage projects, which provides for transparency on the part of the practices applied in projects” (Müller et al., 2017, p. 62).

Part 2: organizational enablers for organizational project governance and governmentality

Part 2 of the book was entitled “Organizational enablers for organizational project governance and governmentality” and spanned Chapters 6–7. This section offered a succinct overview of the research that Müller spearheaded. Using a sense making perspective to categorize enablers, Müller discussed organizational enablers as the “interplay and coexistence of both structural and mental elements” (Müller, 2017d, p. 70). The section presented survey findings of a large-scale international study and depicted distinct enabler profiles of organizations of different sizes and at four levels of success. The section also mapped organizational enablers to institutional theory to categorize enablers, their roles in the organization, and the levels and boundaries of success. Although discussed using the term success, readers are encouraged to also think about success in terms of organizational competitive advantage.

As the aim of this part of the book was to present a preliminary theory of organizational enablers for governance, Müller’s study findings indicated that:

The strongest enabler for successful governance is the organization’s discursive ability. This ability is driven by two enabling factors, which are leadership and governmentality. These factors are supported by the five mechanisms of professionalism, meeting structure, institutionalization for leadership, as well as governance orientation and incentive structure for governmentality.

(Müller, 2017c, p. 94).

At the project governance level, organizational enablers focus on executing “governance frameworks, policies, and projects specific structures” (Müller, 2017d, p. 75) through such practices as procuring and implementing. At the governance of projects level, organizational enablers have to do with flexible corporate structures “which allow for effectiveness in project selection and efficiency in project execution” (p. 76). And finally, organizational enablers for governmentality pertain to empowerment through mindfulness/awareness of the organization, self-responsibility and self-organizing. These three sets of enablers were presented by means of comprehensive tables. For example, an organizational enabler for governance of projects which was categorized as a mechanism/process facilitator would be the mandate that a project management office has to deal with program and portfolio management issues.

Part 3: practices in the private and public sector

Part 3 of the book – “Practices in the private and public sector” was covered in Chapters 8–9. This part was also based on Müller’s literature review on governance (Müller et al., 2014) and empirical study (Müller et al., 2016). The mixed method study involved six case studies and a worldwide survey. The section covered tactical practices in the private sector, followed by strategic practices, and then a multidimensional framework that cohesively presented the concepts. Examples of tactical project governance included methodologies, project management offices and steering committees. In terms of strategic practices, the chapters elaborated on a range of governance and governmentality approaches. These chapters enable readers to appreciate organizational variations in governance and governmentality profiles with respect to degrees of project and organizational success.

Having reviewed and used a number of textbooks over the years in both project management and strategic management wherein the public sector has been overlooked and students have raised this as a concern, the writer of this review especially appreciated Chapter 9 (Governance in Public Projects: the Norwegian Case) because it accentuated the unique aspects of public projects. Both chapter authors are Norwegian:

Norway is a pioneer in the area of governance in public projects, having introduced a governance scheme applied to all the largest state-funded investment projects across sectors, with external quality assurance of the planning documents as the essential elements.

(Klakegg and Volden, 2017, p. 129)

The inclusion of cultural aspects within the Norwegian public sector provided added richness to the case study.

Part 4: consequences for and of governance

This brings us to Part 4 of the book “Consequences for and of Governance,” as covered in Chapters 10–12. The multidimensional concept of project success has had a long history within the project management literature. Using project management methodologies helps improve success. The writer appreciated the concise overview of the success literature and the discussion on terminology confusion with respect to methods, knowledge areas, processes and methodologies. Joslin (2017) neatly related Müller’s layered model on governance paradigms (as discussed in Part 1 of the book) to the use of comprehensive and less comprehensive methodologies. Joslin adopted Khan et al.’s (2013) five success dimensions (project efficiency, organizational benefits, project impact, future potential and stakeholder satisfaction) to examine the direct and indirect relationships of governance on project success. The findings indicated that:

Governance plays an intermediate role in the effectiveness of the methodology, but governance does influence the project environment in terms of directly increasing the probability of success if the project environment is stakeholder oriented.

(p. 169)

Both cognitive trust (consisting of ability, benevolence and integrity) and control were presented as governance mechanisms. Müller used stewardship theory to discuss trust and agency theory for control. If trust is the subjective and emotional component of governance, control is the objective and rational dimension. It appears that control in governance is a fledgling area of study. The chapter discussed trust as an antecedent of project success. Müller’s study examined both trust and control in different governance paradigms. Trust is “an important contextual factor for project managers’ acceptance of governance structures” (Müller, 2017a, p. 176). An important consideration was that “trust and control impact projects differently and are therefore not complementary or substitutes of one another” (p. 178).

As Müller gathered data on ethics as part of his large-scale study on governance, Part 4 concluded with a chapter on this subject. The chapter outlined normative and behavioral ethics and explained that most of the project management literature has focused on normative ethics. With its roots in philosophy and theology, normative ethics pertain to what someone should do when faced with a decision. Normative approaches include a process orientation, outcome orientation and character of orientation. In contrast, behavioral ethics has its roots in social psychology. From a behavioral ethics perspective, unethical behavior in an organization can be driven by conduct at the individual level (referred to as bad apples), within the workplace (labeled bad cases), and at the organizational level (called bad barrels) (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010). The chapter highlighted the types of ethical issues by project governance paradigm and depicted correlations of ethical issues and success with project governance dimensions. It was very interesting to read about the types of ethical issues that can exist within governance approaches.

Part 5: cases of organizational project governance

Part 5 of the book was entitled “Cases of organizational project governance” and covered three very engaging case studies that portrayed governance between projects and corporate levels of organizations (Chapters 13–15). The Sugarloaf Alliance was about building a pipeline to protect against future droughts in Melbourne, Australia. The chapter discussed the four governance principles by the OECD and added Lockwood’s (2010) principals of legitimacy, inclusiveness, conductivity and resilience. These additional dimensions aided the pipeline alliance in dealing with corporate social responsibility matters.

Chapter 14 discussed two mini case studies about governance issues specific to the front-end of projects and internal conflict with respect to behavioral ethics. The interspersion of participant quotes enhanced the richness of the chapter. The final chapter of the book was a brief case study about Tasly Pharmaceuticals in Tianjin, China. Tasly Pharmaceuticals manufactures traditional Chinese medicines and recently expanded in the areas of pharmaceutical chemistry and biological pharmacy. The company received the 2006 International Project Management Association® Excellence Award and Forbes recently recognized Tasly as a best company in the region. The case study discussed conflicts during the organizational transformation from a functional structure to a project based firm and the governance challenges related to the project management office. Throughout, the writer appreciated the conceptual connections that these chapters made to Parts 1 and 2 of the book where the governance foundations were established.

Technical aspects of the book

The front matter of the book identified the other books in the Routledge Studies in Corporate Governance Series. The Table of Contents was clearly organized into five parts, followed by a list of tables and figures, and brief contributing author biographies. Unlike some edited books that include a foreword by others, this book began with an introduction by Müller. Throughout, the references reflect academic rigor and currency without ignoring the classics. Tables and figures were used judiciously with salient points clearly laid out. Each chapter used an appropriate level of headings to allow readers cover the material at various levels of detail. Unlike some books that include footnotes or endnotes, each chapter concluded with its own set of references, making it much easier to refer to them. The index was comprehensive and reflected appropriate key terms and authorities on governance. The writer of this review appreciated the attention taken to connecting each part of the book to the prior and subsequent part.

Given that the literature on governance may be new to many, a glossary of key terms would help novice readers follow the concepts and refer back to key terms as needed. It would have been helpful to include a final chapter to the book rather than concluding with a case study.

Recommendation

Müller’s book provided a robust conceptual overview on the theories of governance as they pertain to projects. Throughout, numerous examples and in particular, the case studies reinforced the concepts. We need more theory driven research in project management. Given the rigor of this edited book, including the methodical application of governance theory to project management, this book is an exemplar and sets a high bar on theoretically driven research. The writer envisions graduate students, new scholars and academics with a keen interest in contributing to governance theory initiating discussions with the authors of this book and leveraging Müller’s governance framework to extend theory and contribute to empirical research in this stream.

Müller’s edited edition successfully achieved its aim as laid out in the first chapter. This book is definitely value for price. It would make a valuable addition to a graduate student’s bookshelf as it would for an academic, educator and consultant.

I highly recommend this research book to scholars and consultants. Given that the research in this book is recent, in addition to it being of value to academics, it would make an excellent handbook for graduate level courses and seminars. I envision the discussions to be lively as the topics will engender debate and motivate students to elevate the quality of their contributions to the field. This book is an exemplar on research anchored within existing managerial theories (in this case, theories in governance).